Missing in Action 2: The Beginning | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Lance Hool |
Produced by |
Menahem Golan Yoram Globus |
Written by | Arthur Silver Larry Levinson Steve Bing |
Starring |
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Music by | Brian May |
Cinematography | Jorge Stahl Jr. |
Edited by | Mark Conte Marcus Manton |
Distributed by |
Cannon Films MGM Paramount Pictures (Viacom Inc.) |
Release date
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Running time
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95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,410,000 |
Box office | $10,755,447 |
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning is a 1985 action/adventure film, and a prequel to Missing in Action, both of which star Chuck Norris. It was directed by Lance Hool and written by Steve Bing, Larry Levinson and Arthur Silver.
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning was filmed back to back with the original Missing in Action and was originally intended to be the first film of the two. But according to Joe Zito, director of what was to become Missing in Action, it was decided that the sequel was a much better film and would be a more successful opener for the franchise. So Cannon just switched titles and release dates. Thus the movie Cannon had planned as a sequel was released first and the movie that told the first part of the story was released as a prequel. It was followed by another sequel featuring the same character, but not directly connected story-wise, Braddock: Missing in Action III.
Ten years before freeing the US POWs from a brutal General, Colonel James Braddock (Chuck Norris) was held in a North Vietnamese POW camp run by sadistic Colonel Yin (Soon-Teck Oh), who forces the POWs to grow opium for a French drug runner named François (Pierre Issot), and tries to get Braddock to admit to and sign a long list of war crimes. During his team's time in captivity, they are relentlessly subjected to various forms of humiliating torture, and Braddock being told that his wife has left him and has remarried. Frankie, another US POW, starts to suffer from malaria, and Braddock exchanges an admission of guilt to Yin's charges of war crimes for medicine for the infected soldier. However, breaking his deal with Braddock, Yin gives the soldier a lethal dose of opium instead. Enraged, Braddock escapes from the camp, and plots to free his fellow prisoners and destroy the prison camp. Yin then betrays François, taking control of his drug ring. Braddock inflicts several losses against Yin's men, leading to Yin's second-in-command to dress a Vietnamese soldier as Colonel Yin and shoot him in an attempt to lure Braddock into the open. Braddock however notices that the decoy is not wearing Yin's boots, and proceeds to kill Yin's men. Eventually, Braddock fights Yin hand to hand in Yin's quarters. Subduing Yin, Braddock escorts the prisoners to an awaiting chopper, although not before exploding charges planted around Yin's quarters.